In the field of ribbon cassettes for use in a printer, an ink ribbon is usually carried in a manner and trained in a path to provide a supply of freshly-inked ribbon at the printing station. In one arrangement, an endless ribbon may be contained in coil form within the cassette with a portion of the coil being directed in a path outside the cassette and past the printing station and wherein the ribbon is uncoiled from an inside diameter of the coil and then recoiled on the outside diameter of the coil after passing the printing station.
An endless ribbon in another form may be contained within the cassette in stuffing manner with a portion of the ribbon being directed in a path past the printing station, and wherein the ribbon is precisely controlled at the exit of the cassette and is then returned to the cassette and placed in random manner and form therein after passing the printing station.
Regardless of whether the cassette contains the endless ribbon in coil form or in stuffed form, an important requirement in many of the various cassettes is to provide a design so as to enable an increase in or to lengthen the life of the ribbon.
In the case of the coiled ribbon within the cassette, the design could also include inking or reinking means so as to increase the life of a ribbon having limited surface or usable area. While it would be more difficult to provide reinking means within the cassette for a stuffing type ribbon, such inking or reinking means could, if necessary, be positioned adjacent the printing station.
Representative prior art in the area of stuffing-type cassettes and of coil-type cassettes includes IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin Vol. 15, No. 2, page 543, dated July, 1972, and entitled Endless Fold Ribbon Cartridge, by B. Gardineer, Jr., which shows a cartridge for an inked ribbon, driven rollers with an elastomeric layer, a spring clip at the exit and a plurality of fingers for folding the ribbon into a sine wave shape.
British Patent Specification No. 12,870, issued to Burk on June 4, 1913, shows a container, rollers for laying ribbon in loose folds and a spring at the exit of the container.
British Patent Specification No. 29,235, issued to Stockall on Dec. 18, 1913, shows a magazine, a feed roller and a friction roller for the ribbon in folding thereof after passing guides and type wheels.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,046,247, issued to R. E. LaSpesa et al. on Sept. 6, 1977, discloses a cartridge for an endless ribbon which is stored in a coil, prior to its usage and then withdrawn by unwinding the coil when the cartridge is moved in one direction for mounting on the printer. The ribbon moves in a single direction past the print head and along a platen, and the ribbon may be replaced in the cartridge by threading the ribbon about a plurality of spaced rollers.